


Owlet

by surefire



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Thorki - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 10:43:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4826129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surefire/pseuds/surefire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is very old, but it's Thorki all the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Owlet

“Loki! Loki!” Thor calls excitedly. “Come and see what I found in the garden!” The little boy is a strange sight in the stern halls of Asgard, running as quickly as his stubby legs will take him. He rushes to find his brother and show him his discover. Tucked neatly in the palm of his hand is a barn owl hatchling. Its round eyes wide open and feathery down fluffed up. It most likely fell from its nest, soon to be found by the child, Thor, who immediately after seeing it felt the urge to protect the bird.

He continues to shout the name of his brother, despite the fact he is still floors above him. Somewhere up there, Loki is reading a book, stolen from the grand library. It is filled with tales of dragons and knights. A book that his father, Odin, had recovered from an old battle on Earth. Din had forbidden the reading of such books, they filled the young boys heads with too many fanciful ideas about the other Realms.

Thor finally finds the room in which Loki had chosen to hide in and read, away from the rest of the castle’s occupants. The bird-carrying boy is out of breathe and pink in the cheeks. “I found... I found...” He starts to explain, then holds the hatchling to show.

Loki, also a bit pink in the face-- for no one was supposed to know about his reading of the forbidden books-- stands up abruptly and slams the book closed. “What do you want Thor?” He snaps. Thor takes no notice of his brother’s cross mood and proceeds to tell him of his walk in the garden and how he heard the poor little owl crying under the cherry tree.

“I think we should name him!” Thor suggests. “Something that describes him.” He tickles the owl’s chin. Loki glares at the dumpy little bird in disgust, honestly his brother could be such a dimwit sometimes. “What makes you think I want to name the stupid creature?” Your brain must be made of fluff if you even dared to assume I wanted to see the despicable thing.” Loki shoots back, trying to discourage Thor’s hopes, but it doesn’t seem to work in the least. Thor’s frown only lasts a fraction of a second before his face lights up with an idea.

“FLUFF!” He exclaims, a little too loudly for Loki’s taste, he is still in danger of being heard. “We can name him Fluff!” The idiotic child shouts in delight, bouncing around, chirping the name of his newest friend. Loki just glares at him harder.

Thor stops, noticing that Loki has not joined his cheering. “Brother, are you unhappy?” He asks, innocently.

“Yes.” Loki hisses. “I didn’t ask to be a part of this. When someone locks himself in an abandon room, it probably means that they don’t want to be disturbed by others!” His voice rises towards the end of his statement.

Thor cocks his head to the side, like a confused puppy. Loki rolls his eyes and smacks his forehead with his palm. “Can you understand anything I say?” The owl chirps an almost human like “no”.

Thor’s eyes are close to filling with tears, “Why would anybody want to hide from his brother?” Then he sees the book Loki is holding behind his back. He wipes his eyes with the cakc of his hand and reaches for the book. “You stole this..?”

Loki pulls away, clutching the book firmly to his narrow chest. “You can’t tell father!” He orders.

Thor jolts back, not expecting such a protective reaction. “I won’t.” He promises, crossing his heart. “But...you wouldn’t mind reading to me, would you?” Loki narrows his eyes, “You can steal your own book and read it to yourself.” He stomps out out the room, and slams the door, leaving Thor and the owlet in stark silence.

Outside the room, Loki sighs. Why did his brother have to act like such an idiot? Why couldn’t he just understand? Mother understood. Father on the other hand seemed to know something that neither of the boys knew. He favored Thor, Loki saw this in all his actions. He would find fault in him and praise Thor for every move. That is why he locked himself in rooms for hours. That is why he didn’t want to have that dumb bird. And that is why he most definitely couldn’t read to his brother.

Years latter...

Light streams down from the pale morning sky, through the window into the empty room. It was the golden kind of light. It was a forgotten room, never used for more than collecting dust and lost sun rays of the morning.

Except on this morning, it wasn’t empty. A figure is pressed into one dark corner, the only place the light didn’t reach. It’s sleeping, the person, the breathing is steady and shallow. “Thor..” It whispers weakly, then tenses and draws itself deeper into the depths of the dark corner.

At that same moment, deep in the woods, Thor is on the trail of a stag. He’s closing in, bowstring drawn back, when his name enter his head. It catches him off guard and his arrow plummets deep into the bracken, feet from where the deer had stood. The cry of a flock of birds is heard, then the forest is quiet once more. Thor spins around, expecting to see someone, or something, whatever had said his name. But he is alone. There is no one else. The forest’s silence haunts him, long after the birds have resumed their song.

“Loki!” Thor shouts into the empty corridors, searching for the one person who could have spoken his name. He flings open doors and slams them shut again when they reveal dark hollow rooms. Until one door is opened into a bright room, one with windows. All is ablaze with the morning’s glow dust flecks float lazily around. Thor servaes the full room. In the far left corner is the one person he hoped, but dreaded, to see.

Thor is instantly at Loki’s side. “Brother! Why are you here? Are you hurt?” The crumpled form of Loki turns his head to face Thor. “ I.. I don’t think so...” Loki breaths, wincing with the effort it took to say a few words. Thor gently lifts him into his arms, cradling his frail body.

“What happened to you?” Thor asks.

Loki reaches for Thors hand, finds it, and grips it tightly. “I got into a little trouble.” He give s a painful chuckle “..with a old friend of ours. I didn’t have... anywhere else to go, so I found this room.” He smiles painfully up at Thor. “I knew you would help me.” His voice contains a hopeful spark..

Thor sighs, thinking, How can he trust me? He never trusted me when we were growing up. “Lets take a look at the damage.” He says, and begins to slowly take off Loki’s armor.

“Careful!” Loki warns through gritted teeth. He grips Thor’s hand a bit tighter. “Sorry.” Thor mumbles back, continuing his progress a bit slower.

The final layer is removed, revealing a large gash on his left side. Blood is reflowing, patches are dry and cracking. Thor shuts his eyes, not daring to look at it any further, not because of the blood, but imagining the pain Loki must be in.  
Loki clenches his teeth. “It’s bad, I know.” A short gasp escapes his tightly drawn lips. “I must get you to the infirmary.” Thor says urgently. He tries to get up and leave, but cannot for Loki still has his hand. “Brother, you must let me go.” He pleads. Loki gives him a stern look. “No. No one must know I am here.”

“But, you’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine, just get me to my room.”

“Alright,” Thor doesn’t argue further. “Do you want me to carry you?” Loki gives him a sharp look. “How else will you get me up there?” He asks sarcastically.

Thor takes a moment to position his arms around Loki, and gradually lifts him. “You’re lighter than before.” Thor tells him. “Is that a good thing?” Loki asks reproachfully. Thor chooses not to answer.

The journey through the halls is slow and tedious. At one point they are almost spotted by a guard, Loki casts a spell around the both of them at the last moment. It leaves him even weaker than before.

“We are quite the sight.” Loki points out, humorously, “Two princes, one carrying the other “princess style” though the halls of Asgard.” Thor grins at the joke.

 

Eventually they reach Loki’s bedroom door. Thor kicks it open, not even trying the latch first. Loki rolls his eyes.“Was that really necessary?”

The room is pitch black, untouched by any light for years. A fine layer of dust has settled on all surfaces. It is released in a cloud when Thor setts Loki down on the bed.

“It was that a cursed bird, the one who did this to me. The same one from all those years ago.” Loki explains.

“The owl, the one you found when we were just children.” Loki motions for Thor to sit next to him. His brother has not remembered the bird quite yet, until he asks, “Fluff?”

Loki rolls his eyes, “So that was it’s name, I couldn’t recall it. What an imbecile you were, are still. That bird of yours attacked me, it has grown to tremendous size since last we saw it. I thought it might have been a demon from one of the other Realms, but no it is a normal Midgardian owl. The thing must have mutated from eating the food of the table of Asgard. Why were you stupid enough to take that pathetic creature in?”

The question was rhetorical, but that didn’t stop Thor from trying to answer.

“I thought you might like him,” He mumbles. “You always liked the Midgardian books that father brought back, so I wanted to surprise you with a gift from one of the stories to read to me.”

Loki blinked in surprise, never had he imagined his brother would do something like that out of love. He just took the owl to be a nuisance, like what it would be if he were the one give a gift of that sort. Only to annoy, never in an act of love.

"The owl was for me?" He whispered it softly, like a last cry for help. "Yes." Thor responds in the softest voice he could muster. He leaned forward and pressed his lips pressed against Loki's and for a second the pain from his wound seemed to stop. It didn't last to long.

"Stop," Loki hissed, his hand grasping the wound that had not stopped bleeding yet. "Help me take of my armor.

Thor obeyed silently, gently lifting Loki's cape off and then the several layers over his chest. The wound looked worse now that the whole thing was exposed. Jagged flesh hang at precarious angles and shreds. "Oh holy father Odin, Loki. I thought you said you weren't injured."

"I was being sarcastic, couldn't you tell?" He said sarcastically. Thor looked confused. The kiss probably didn't help. "Loki what are you trying to tell me?" He wasn't referring to the sarcasm now, he was truly confused, like a lost puppy who doesn't even know where home is. Loki didn't want to talk about it, he tried to ignore his brother, focusing on using his energy to heal his side. Eventually, he didn't have enough energy left even to do that so he looked back to his brother.

"I will only fail in explaining this to you, so try to bear with me." Nothing from Thor. Loki sighed. "Ever since father told us that I wasn't his son I've been thinking. About us, and how now our lives can take on so many more paths than before."

"Is that why you left?"

"Somewhat." He lifted his blood stained hand to caress Thor's face. "I needed time to feel, and to process the million thoughts that flooded my mind at that moment. I was scared, I lashed out as I had often done when I was angry. I wanted to hurt someone, I wanted to love someone. Hurt our godforsaken father who was cruel enough to lie to us as children and love..." He trailed off, lost in the thoughts that had kept him away for so many years.

"I understand now." Thor stated. Loki scoffed, "As if you could work out all the thoughts that went through my mind in that time."

"No, but I understand why you are here, why you went to find the owl." Loki started to cut him off, but Thor continued. "You did intentionally find the owl. And why you are still here."

Loki leaned back in the bed. "Alright then, lend me some of your energy so that I might finish healing this wound."

"No not until after you say it."

"Say what?"

"You know what I mean."

Loki glared at Thor, "Fine. You aren't a complete idiot brother."

Thor chuckled. "I love you too."


End file.
